21!

I have reached that great American milestone and marked it by attending Mass on the Feast of the Holy Innocents (and a Benedict's Bock beer at Granite City Brewery). I used to hate the fact that my birthday coincided with the memorial of Herod's slaughter of Jesus' generation but I've come to cherish it; they are the patron saints of choir boys and great intercessors for the current holocaust. Hopefully they will help me keep and cultivate a childlike innocence as I head further out into the world, to be in it but not of it.

I would also like to share what will be consuming future entries of this journal and increase readership I expect!

On 5 February 2010 I will be leaving to study abroad at the Angelicum in Rome, Italy through the Catholic Studies Rome Program at the University of Saint Thomas. While there, I will study bioethics, poetry, art and architecture, Latin, and conversational Italian as well as soak up all of Italian culture, living each day as a Roman, and absorbing all kinds of Catholicism in the Eternal City. Pray for me. I will pray for you throughout the various pilgrimage sites. Stay tuned for various updates and pictures coming from around Italy and Europe through June 2010.

His Holiness, Benedict XVI; Christmas 2009

Midnight Mass
Solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord
24 December 2009
Saint Peter's Basilica
Homily of His Holiness Benedict XVI

Urbi et Orbi Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI
25 December 2009
Saint Peter's Square

The Proclamation of the Birth of Christ

Today, the twenty–fifth day of December,
unknown ages from the time when God created the heavens and the earth
and then formed man and woman in his own image.

Several thousand years after the flood,
when God made the rainbow shine forth
as a sign of the covenant.

Twenty–one centuries from the time of Abraham and Sarah;
thirteen centuries after Moses led the people of Israel
out of Egypt.

Eleven hundred years from the time of Ruth and the Judges;
one thousand years from the anointing of David as king;
in the sixty–fifth week according to the prophecy of Daniel.

In the one hundred and ninety–fourth Olympiad;
the seven hundred and fifty–second year from the foundation
of the city of Rome.

The forty–second year of the reign of Octavian Augustus;
the whole world being at peace,
Jesus Christ, eternal God and Son of the eternal Father,
desiring to sanctify the world by his most merciful coming,
being conceived by the Holy Spirit,
and nine months having passed since his conception,
was born in Bethlehem of Judea of the Virgin Mary.

Today is the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.